midnighter

These last couple years have felt like a pretty great time to be a queer comics fan. LGBTQ themes in comics have moved from the fringe to (almost?) the mainstream, but that doesn't mean the fringe has stopped doing great things too. Whether you love superheroes, fantasy, drama, or slice of life stories, there's almost certainly a queer comic out there that's perfect for you, or your friend or partner!

If the stated goal of DC's line-wide Rebirth was to restore the connections and the sense of history that have been building between those heroes for 75 years, then at this point, I think we can call it a success. For the first time in a long time, the DC Universe feels like a universe again, and that foundation of interconnected characters and relationships, all those bits and pieces that can unify all these disparate stories, have led to some truly great comics. The unity of the Batman books, the bizarre excesses of Superman and Son battling against an island of dinosaurs, the breath of fresh air that's giving the Green Lanterns a whole new appeal, and all the way down the line. For a reader like me, who has a love of that universe that's built on those connections and tied up into those relationships, there's so much out there that's genuinely great. And nothing on the stands has done it better than the first issue of Midnighter and Apollo.

Writer Steve Orlando's career has gone from strength to strength thanks to his work on critically acclaimed books such as Midnighter, Undertow, and Virgil. He's now working with some of the most fascinating heroes in the DC universe in his new ongoing Supergirl series and the upcoming Midnighter & Apollo, and he was recently announced as the new writer on Justice League of America. But he continues to balance these books with more personal projects, like the four-issue Boom fantasy miniseries Namesake, about a man hopping worlds to bury his two fathers' remains. ComicsAlliance sat down with Orlando at Flame Con in Brooklyn last month to talk about queer heroes, the market for marginalized fans, and building bridges between creators and their critics.

Midnighter was, without question, one of the single greatest books of DC's New 52 Era. The combination of high-octane, senses-shattering action, a thrilling romantic subplot about a man who had always been defined by his relationship finding himself single for the first time, and a premise that pitted Midnighter against some of the stranger and more obscure pieces of the DC Universe, made it an irresistible read. Now, Midnighter's coming back --- and for the first time in a while, he's not alone. In Midnighter and Apollo, Steve Orlando and Fernando Blanco have reunited two of DC's most prominent gay superheroes --- and the first thing they're going to do is take on the Half-Beard and the Subway Pirates. Check out a preview!

Everybody's favorite super-boyfriends are returning to DC Comics this October, and we've got some gorgeous Fernando Blanco art to show you from the first issue. The in-progress pages are from the first issue of the six-part Midnighter & Apollo miniseries written by Steve Orlando, who also wrote the recent Midnighter series, with Blanco on interiors and ACO (the primary artist on Midnighter) handling covers.

There was a time not so long ago when one could count off all the LGBTQ superheroes at Marvel and DC on the fingers of one hand. We’ve seen an increasing number of queer heroes make their debuts in recent years, and a few established heroes have come out as LGBTQ, but the number of queer superheroes at the Big Two in any given month is still sometimes small enough to count on one hand. To celebrate Pride, and the many LGBTQ heroes that have appeared at Marvel and DC over the years, we’ve assembled a panel of ComicsAlliance contributors to hold a fantasy draft. Our writers will take turns building up seven-member dream teams of LGBTQ superheroes from the ranks of both publishers.

It’s been roughly a month since DC Comics announced its latest publishing venture, DC Rebirth, and outside of the titles of the comics, and the news that over half the line will be published twice-monthly, we don’t know a whole heck of a lot. Big announcements are expected at Wondercon on March 26th, but we can’t wait that long, so we’ve put together a list of our biggest hopes --- and our most realistic fears --- for DC’s line-wide relaunch this summer.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about "DC Rebirth," despite what we learned from the official announcement of the publisher's latest linewide relaunch yesterday. To begin with, there are no creative teams announced. No matter how familiar you are with a character, it’s impossible to guess what a book will be like if you don’t know who will be writing, drawing, and coloring it. We don’t even know if the relaunched books will keep the same creative teams, or if this is a total line-wide shake-up. There are books I’d love to see get new creators, like Wonder Woman. And likewise there are books where I’d be afraid to see a shake-up, like Batgirl. But DC Comics isn’t ready to tell us any of that. What we have is a list of titles, and a CBR interview with chief creative officer Geoff Johns. And in that interview, Johns made some telling and alarming remarks.

Last week, I interviewed Midnighter writer Steve Orlando, and as you usually do with this sort of thing, I asked him what we could look forward to in the book's next arc. I don't know why, but for some reason, I wasn't expecting the answer to be, "Midnighter gets shot into space by a giant cannon so that he can crash into a space station riding in the bullet and then fight the Suicide Squad." Really though, I should've. Considering that previous stories in this book have involved Freedom Beast showing up to fight people who were making giant elephant leopards, and that this issue is itself the sequel to a story where Midnighter fights bad guys with a gun that shoots demonic possession, transportation by giant space cannon seems like the next logical step. Check out an exclusive preview.

GLAAD, the advocacy group that monitors lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender representation in the media, has announced the 2016 nominees for its annual Media Awards celebrating positive LGBT representation, including five comic book series that provided outstanding examples of fair, inclusive, original and impactful LGBT characters in 2015. Four publishers are recognized this year; DC leads with two nominees, Harley Quinn and Midnighter. Marvel's sole nominee is Angela, Queen of Hel, while Boom's Lumberjanes and Image's The Wicked And The Divine complete the list. For the first time, the GLAAD website lists the artists for the books rather than just crediting the writers.